MUSIC REVIEW;Under the Philadelphia's Spell, Beethoven Is Brand New

A program by the Philadelphia Orchestra on Thursday night luxuriated in the familiar. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the latest installment in the Philadelphia's current Beethoven survey, is music more familiar than any other. George Rochberg's Clarinet Concerto, like so much new music these days, alluded heavily to familiar masterpieces: Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, the "Symphonie Fantastique," Sibelius's Fourth Symphony, "Das Lied von der Erde."

Some might complain that American orchestras are once again woefully short on new ideas. This concert at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia left different feelings: intense admiration for the common-sense brilliance of Wolfgang Sawallisch's Beethoven, and respectful bewilderment at Mr. Rochberg's polystylistic machinations.

In the early 1960's, this composer abandoned academic Serialism for a complex world of quotation and pastiche. As his approach has become fashionable in the following years, the unfashionable composer has partially reclaimed free-form atonality, while still plying listeners with shocks of recognition.

Quotations run a serious risk. If the audience does not recognize them, the composer might win approval in an underhanded way. If it does recognize them, the composer is at the mercy of individual associations. When Shostakovich cited "William Tell" in his 15th Symphony, he could not factor in the giggles of American listeners reared on the "Lone Ranger." The musical flow is impeded by uncontrollable distractions.

A musical chaos theorist like Alfred Schnittke thrives on that dark circus of association. Mr. Rochberg tries something different. Mozart and company do appear here as a kind of crisis: the composer overawed by his predecessors. But a purposefully lovely final section entitled "Serenissima" offers resolution: a simple, tonal six-note tune over murmuring strings, with just a hint of Samuel Barber in the supporting lines.

This linear narrative is not entirely satisfying. Although Mr. Rochberg has found a promising middle way between tonality and atonality, he has not found climactic ideas to subdue the power of his predecessors. In the Shostakovich 15th, quotations tell a story: Rossini and Wagner offer a promise of Romantic liberation (remember that Schiller's "William Tell" is a great Romantic play), which Shostakovich himself eloquently denies. Here, Mr. Rochberg's slightly bland A-major song cannot dispel the effect of a few agonized bars of Mahler.

In any event, the Philadelphia played magnificently. Anthony Gigliotti, who is ending nearly 50 seasons as the orchestra's principal clarinetist, played the Rochberg solos with fierce agility. Mr. Sawallisch also led a moody, atmospheric reading of Bartok's Divertimento. The Beethoven, crisp and elegant, was the real marvel. Generally fast tempos were countered by a few perfectly modulated hesitations and meditative emphases. The well-worn Fifth sounded astonishingly fresh.